CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 246 km round trip from Sankt Gallen - roughly 4 h 59 in the saddle. It goes by way of Konstanz-Hinterhausen, Hornstaad-Hörnle, Sipplingen-Osthafen and Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It crosses from Switzerland into Germany - carry ID and check vignette or toll rules.
41 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For about 34 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
In the centre of St Gallen, a city in north-eastern Switzerland between Lake Constance and the Appenzell hills, the twin towers of a baroque cathedral rise above a wide square, and beside them stands one of the oldest and most beautiful libraries in the world. The Abbey of St Gall was founded in the eighth century on the site where the Irish monk Gallus had settled in the early seventh century, and it became one of the great centres of learning in medieval Europe. The abbey precinct was listed by UNESCO in 1983.
Read the complete Abbey of St Gall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Abbey of St Gall is where the day begins. Next is Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
There is nothing to see at Konstanz-Hinterhausen, and that is precisely the point. Below the surface of Lake Constance, along the shore near the city, lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings: wooden posts, floors, pottery and food remains preserved in the mud for thousands of years. They are part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps, a World Heritage site that spans six countries and over a hundred locations. Archaeologists dive to study them, but the rest of us have to make do with the view of the lake and a bit of imagination.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen comes up about 44 km into the recorded legs. Next is Hornstaad-Hörnle.
On the Höri peninsula, the long finger of land that pokes into the Untersee arm of Lake Constance, the shallow water off the point of Hornstaad hides the remains of a village burned some six thousand years ago. Hornstaad-Hörnle is one of the most important Neolithic sites in the region: the settlement was destroyed by fire, and the charred remains, sealed in lake mud, preserved an extraordinary record of daily life, including food, textiles, tools and house timbers, which dendrochronology has dated with great precision. It is part of the World Heritage inscription of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps, and finds from the site are displayed in museums around the lake.
Read the complete Hornstaad-Hörnle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 78 km into the recorded legs you reach Hornstaad-Hörnle. Next is Sipplingen-Osthafen.
At Sipplingen the north shore of Lake Constance changes character. The Überlinger See, the long north-western arm of the lake, is hemmed in here by steep molasse cliffs and wooded slopes rising to the Sipplinger Berg, and the village sits on a narrow strip between the hill and the water. Below the surface off the eastern harbour lie the remains of prehistoric pile dwellings, villages of wooden houses built on stilts along the shore some five to six thousand years ago. They are part of the World Heritage site of prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sipplingen-Osthafen, about halfway. Next is Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen.
Unteruhldingen is where most people first meet the prehistoric lake dwellers of the Alps, thanks to the Pfahlbaumuseum, an open-air museum of reconstructed houses on stilts standing in the shallow water of Lake Constance. It started in the 1920s and has been adding houses ever since, and walking along the wooden walkways between thatched huts gives you a vivid idea of village life thousands of years ago. The real archaeological sites, like Stollenwiesen just offshore, lie underwater, a series of settlements preserved in lake mud and listed by UNESCO in 2011 as part of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps.
Read the complete Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen sits at 95 km, about halfway. Next is back through Sipplingen-Osthafen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sipplingen-Osthafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Sipplingen-Osthafen comes up about 140 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Hornstaad-Hörnle.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hornstaad-Hörnle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 169 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Hornstaad-Hörnle. Next is back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Konstanz-Hinterhausen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen, late in the day. Next is Abbey of St Gall.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Abbey of St Gall write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 246 km.
Abbey of St Gall → Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Hornstaad-Hörnle is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hornstaad-Hörnle → Sipplingen-Osthafen is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sipplingen-Osthafen → Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Unteruhldingen-Stollenwiesen → back through Sipplingen-Osthafen is 16 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sipplingen-Osthafen → back through Hornstaad-Hörnle is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Hornstaad-Hörnle → back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Konstanz-Hinterhausen → Abbey of St Gall is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.